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Toby Travanner

Achieving the accolade of being known as Australia’s #1 Business MC is not something that happens easily. Toby’s entire focus in his role as MC is to make you and your organisation not only look good, he’ll make you look great.

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Testimonials for Toby Travanner

"I met Toby at a DHL executive program and was so impressed with his work that I asked him to come to Singapore develop a one-one presentation skills course for myself and my direct reports. I thought that he did a fantastic job. The material he presented was very poignant and delivered in a very upbeat and accessible manner. He has a great ability to relay realistic and useful strategies that have made a noticeable impact upon my executive members and myself. I would recommend him/The Learning Company to anyone."

Scott Price President and CEO (2007) DHL Express, Asia Pacific

"I have seen a lot of MCs and found Toby to be excellent. He was an excellent MC and facilitator for the executive forum hypothetical. His questions were well versed and suited both my objectives and thoughts in a positive way/manner/light. His interview technique is interactive and respectful of people thoughts – he never spoke over the top of anyone. His ability to engage the audience is fantastic. His vitality, enthusiasm and confidence was infectious and left everyone feeling good. He was a pleasure to work with and his organization and information was tight and clear at all times. I absolutely recommend Toby and would like to use him myself.

Toby’s presentation on the hypothetical was well presented and thought provoking. Questions were well researched and formulated. Participants were made to feel comfortable and at ease at all times. Thank you Toby."

Nick Crabb Manager Tourism and Development Qantas

Toby was an excellent MC and facilitator at the National MEA Conference and Gala Dinner. He was well prepared and researched and helped underpin the background and knowledge of each interviewee. He is engaging and designs his presentations to maximize the audience participation. He keeps things moving at all times and meets objectives beautifully. Toby is able to engage the audience through the use of his strong presentation skills and expertise in the subject matter being presented. His personality and professionalism shines through and makes it easy to work with him. He is open and communicative when preparing and managing events. He has a great ability to handle last minute changes extremely well and made it his business to ensure that the event ran smoothly. He is an enthusiastic and charismatic speaker who is highly entertaining and up there with the best facilitators in Australia."

Toby Travanner's Biography

Achieving the accolade of being known as Australia’s #1 Business MC is not something that happens easily. Toby’s entire focus in his role as MC is to make you and your organisation not only look good, he’ll make you look great.

He brings over 29 years of experience as a consultant, keynote speaker, sales person, manager and facilitator into his role as an MC. Being expert in a number of industries and well-versed in most of the rest, he’s more than just intros and housekeeping. He will capture and motivate audiences by ensuring that the key messages from each session are highlighted and linked with each other and with the theme of the conference, and that conference strategies and desired outcomes are consistently reinforced. Toby has been described as “a link presenter” as he often adds content value in addition to the seamless management of the conference program.

One of the main ways Toby prepares in his role as MC for a conference is in the many hours of research he does on the industry, the organisation and any products. He’ll have enough knowledge to make supportive comments or to challenge them in a panel discussion or interview. It’s about knowing the industry or product or company without passing himself off as an industry expert.

He’s also funny without being a comedian; he’s able to delve into the human psyche without being a psychologist; he can speak business without being an economist; interview without being a journalist; play a role without being an actor; and can provide knowledge and useful tools without being a professor (but he is a member of the Adjust Faculty at the Australian Graduate School of Management, UNSW).

As an MC Toby brings his skills as a consultant, keynote speaker and facilitator into his role as an MC, and being well versed in a multitude of industries and with over 22 years of experience in business he’s more than just intros and housekeeping. He will capture and motivate audiences by ensuring that the key messages from each session are highlighted and linked with each other and with the theme of the conference, and that conference strategies and desired outcomes are consistently reinforced.

As a facilitator Toby allows the group to achieve more by having someone provide frameworks, structure and exercises for discussion and documentation. Toby’s facilitation sessions range from hypotheticals, both as a planning tool as well as a conference session, through to strategic and tactical business planning session.

For his planning sessions, he uses a particularly engaging approach known as Explorer, Artist, Judge, Warrior. This structure allows the team to understand where they are (explore), create ideas (artist), select the ones with the most impact (judge) and then develop an action plan (warrior). He also uses other tools like meta planning, scenario based discussion and numerous business models to create the highest impact in the shortest possible time.

Toby is described as the ‘swiss army knife’ by many of his clients because of his ability to pull out the appropriate tool when necessary. Although he speaks on his favourite subjects, he uses his learning and development background to tailor his presentations from first principles to ensure that the content is relevant, informative, entertaining, but most importantly, immediately usable. He’s used this approach for not only keynote presentations, but also in his role as a ‘link presenter’, that five minute topic to link two speakers together when he is MCing, but also when he launches new products or initiatives for his clients. It’s all about making them look good.

Toby's presentations are designed around his 3 'S's.

Short term: There must be something that is immediately useable by the participants. If people and organisations don't see an immediate benefit, it is more difficult to gain the momentum from Skills Development or motivational activities.

Sustainable: Motivation can sometimes be limited to the time during the interaction with the presenter. Often we take part in sessions where we are entertained and think "I must do that when I get back to work". Unless the ideas, attitudes and methods are sustainable outside the conference or learning environment, then improvements to the return on intellect will not be achievable.

Significant: Outcomes, over a period of time, need to have a significant, measurable benefit to both the individual and to the organisation of which they are a part. These outcomes need to be in the form of improved technical and professional behaviours that lead to benefits to business processes.